A short while after learning his captain would be lost for the final two games of the regular season for elbowing Minnesota’s Jason Pominville, Sutter told Lisa Dillman of the LA Times he was ‘disappointed’ in the decision.

“Obviously we were disappointed in the decision, quite honest,” Sutter explained. “Because it was exactly what Brownie says, is exactly what happened — there was no intention, or leading.”

Following last night’s game — a 2-1 Minnesota win — Brown tried to explain his actions, saying he wasn’t trying to hurt Pominville.

“I had the puck on my stick,” he said. “He’s coming to hit me. I’m just bracing myself.”

Brown, who doesn’t have a history of suspendable offenses, will miss Los Angeles’ game tonight against Detroit and Saturday against San Jose.

Not being available for the Saturday game is a big, because the Kings could be playing the Sharks for fourth place in the Western Conference, and home-ice advantage in the opening round.

Not that Sutter’s going to concern himself with that.

“Two games — that’s what we live with,” he told the Times. “At least we know we have him for Game 1 [of the playoffs].”

The New Jersey Devils have been incredibly difficult to beat at home. Lately, the St. Louis Blues have been on a roll just about anywhere.

On Friday night, the Blues were the hotter team, handing the Devils their first home loss in regulation in 2016-17. And it wasn’t particularly close, with St. Louis winning 4-1.

It’s a convenient time to note that the Blues rank among the hottest teams in the NHL. Most recently, they’re 5-1-1 in their last seven games, but they’ve been especially impressive since they flirted with .500 at 7-6-3. Beginning with a 4-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 15, the Blues are on a 8-2-1 tear.

This leaves them second in the Central with a 16-8-4 record.

That’s impressive stuff.

This 4-1 win was quite the showcase for Robby Fabbri and Vladimir Tarasenko, in particular. Tarasenko collected three assists while Fabbri scored two goals on Friday night. His second goal was particularly slick:

The Blues are right in saying that this was a pretty fitting opportunity to drop a “Holy Jumpin.”

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has been the most difficult goalies to score against this season. Leave it to a high-level player like Leon Draisaitl to make it look this, well, “easy.”

Draisaitl scored his 13th goal of 2016-17 by capping this pretty give-and-go play with Benoit Pouliot. You can see the frustration from Dubnyk at the end of the tally, as if he was saying “How was I supposed to stop that?” (though probably with more colorful language).

Draisaitl came into Friday with five goals and three assists in his last five games, so he’s been almost unstoppable lately.